The Auto World

BeyonCa, a new startup headquartered in China with a design center in Germany and an AI development hub in Singapore, that’s headed by former VW China boss and current Renault China CEO, Soh Weiming, unveiled its very first concept this weekend. With features that go beyond what is expected of other vehicles, the company hopes to “set the standard for a super-premium EV.” “The BeyonCa GT Opus 1 truly signifies what BeyonCa stands for, as we set out to define the super-premium smart EV segment,” said Weiming Soh, founder and Chairman of BeyonCa. “The result of our team’s work is the perfect combination of design, craftsmanship, comfort, sportiness, and an amazing experience.” The car, designed by former Škoda and Bentley design head Dirk van Braeckel, will have a number of intriguing features . For instance, sensors in the car will monitor a driver’s blood pressure and can trigger an alarm if a medical emergency happens. Read: Zeekr’s 009 Electric Minivan Is All About Luxury And Co...

Caterham is planning an all-electric two-seater that it will sell alongside the long-standing Seven. The small British company believes it will be able to build combustion-powered cars until 2034 but that won’t stop it from venturing into the world of EVs with a second model. Unlike the Seven, it is expected to be a closed-body two-seater that could have a fixed roof but speaking about it with Autocar , Caterham chief executive Bob Laishley said it will retain the key characteristics that all Caterham models are known for. While details about the new model are limited, Laishley says it will be built at a new factory and at greater volumes than the Seven. It will also cost more than the Seven and could be unveiled as soon as 2026. Read: 2022 Super Seven 600 and 2000 Channel Caterham’s 1970s Heritage “This will definitely not be a Seven,” Laishley said. “But it’ll have all the characteristics today’s Caterham customers know well: lightness, simplicity, agility and performance. ...

Ford has a message for white-collar workers and it’s ‘shape up or ship out.’ According to an email obtained by The Wall Street Journal , Ford is targeting “underperformers” with an ultimatum that asks them to either improve or leave the company. As part of the effort, employees with eight years of service who have been “identified as demonstrating a pattern of declining performance,” can either take a buyout and leave the automaker or take part in a four- to six-week performance improvement program. While the latter could potentially save their job, it’s not a sure thing and failure to improve could see them lose their job as well as the severance offer. Also: Stellantis Offering Voluntary Buyouts To Salaried Employees In The U.S. This will leave a number of employees with a perilous decision, but it can also be viewed as a second chance of sorts. It remains unclear how many people are being targeted by the action, but the move appears to be part of a larger attrition effort to...

International outrage over the Inflation Reduction Act continues as the European Union is asking the United States to treat electric vehicles and batteries built by member countries the same as those made in Canada and Mexico. According to Reuters , that’s the message following a meeting between EU trade ministers and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. While details about the talks are vague, Czech trade minister Jozef Sikela reportedly said both sides have shown a willingness to make a deal. The European Union is seeking the same treatment as Canada and Mexico, but Sikela said “We have to be realistic and see what we can negotiate.” As part of that effort, a joint taskforce will meet later this week to discuss the issue and seek possible solutions. Also: European Union Says America’s Proposed EV Tax Credit Might Violate World Trade Organization Rules While the EU is looking to strike a deal, it appears retaliatory measures are on the table as EU Trade Commissioner Valdi...

General Motors is delaying plans to produce as many as 400,000 electric vehicles in North America due to a slower-than-expected ramp up in the production of batteries. The car manufacturer had initially intended on producing 400,000 EVs in North America through 2022 and 2023 but while speaking during a call announcing the company’s third-quarter results, chief executive Mary Barra said its plans have been delayed by six months. “All of our 2023 launches are progressing well. However, due to a slightly slower launch of cell and pack production than we expected, our plan is now to produce 400,000 EVs in North America over the course of 2022, 2023, and the first half of 2024,” Barra said. Read: Chevrolet To Boost Bolt Production After Price Cuts Drive Demand Barra noted that it had taken “longer than expected” to hire and train more than 1,000 workers that will staff its battery production plant in Warran, Ohio, Business Insider reports. “It’s taken a little bit longer also fro...

When the Rimac Nevera was launched, it made headlines for its huge power figures and the remarkable way it builds speed. Now, it’s set to be featured on the next series of Top Gear and host Chris Harris says that other hypercars should be humbled. In an interview hosted by the Top Gear digital team, Chris Harris gives us a preview of what’s coming for the video, and just how deeply the Rimac Nevera, whose progress he says he’s been tracking for years, has changed his idea of what a hypercar can do. “What I will say about the Nevera is that it’s so fast that the 10th time you do a full-bore start, your body still goes ‘What’s going on here, why would that happen?'” he says. “So there’s a level of performance, I think, you reach where the party trick doesn’t get tiresome. But maybe it’s at 1,900 hp and two million quid.” Read: Jay Leno Drives The Rimac Nevera For The First Time That’s not to say that the Rimac Nevera is perfect, however. Harris says that, as an exercise in s...

The thing about quick-fix tools like duct tape, monkey wrenches, and cable or zip ties, is that sometimes they’re the most appropriate solution, even if they seem a little cheap. Such is the case, according to Winnebago, for its latest recall. The recreational vehicle brand has initiated a recall of 4,616 vehicles produced between March 2019 and October 2022 (2020-2023MY). The vehicles are equipped with fuel line clamps that do not adequately hold the LP fuel line, according to documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration . That’s a big problem, because one of the purpose of one of the clamps is to keep the line clear from the tires as it passes near the rear wheel well. If the line makes contact with the wheel, it can fray, causing a hole to form and a fuel leak to ensue. Read: Ford Bronco Sport’s Fuel Pump May Slap Against The Gas Tank Causing It To Break If the fuel leaks near something hot or near an ignition point, it could lead to a fire . As a...

The most talked about segment of the automotive world these days, without a doubt, is the EV sector. For better or for worse, governments the world over have doubled down on plans to electrify the majority of the vehicles running on their roads, even planning to outlaw non-EVs, in some cases. Car manufacturers, too, appear to be jumping on this bandwagon with enthusiasm, if the dizzying array of new EV models being launched at the moment is any indication. Besides new launches, a lot of attention is being focused on adapting existing vehicles to fully electric operation. The European Union , in particular, is pushing its Clean Vehicle Directive strongly and looking specifically at areas like public transport to lead the charge for change. According to Hans-Georg Herb, the head of EV conversion specialist Elerra, EV conversions on old buses make good economic sense, because a conversion can be completed for between €300,000 and €350,000 ($299,000–$348,000), which is half the cost of ...

The Honda S2000 may be an iconic sports car but that didn’t stop the owner of this particular one transforming it into a rat rod unlike any other. This S2000 has been doing the rounds on social media as of late and was brought to life by Instagram user pepdoesit. While details about the build are limited, the results speak for themselves. One thing we do know about the car is that the original chassis of the S2000 has been ditched in favor of one from Village Customs. This frame serves as the base for the S2000 rat rod and allows it to sit just a few millimeters off the pavement. Read: Pristine 800-mile Honda S2000 Listed For $150,000   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Pep Urra (@pepdoesit) The owner has also replaced the Honda’s original four-cylinder engine with what sounds like a small-capacity V8. Indeed, the sports car has undergone such a radical transformation that the only sign of it actually starting out...

Money can’t buy beauty goes the saying but for six figures we should be able to get pretty close. We recently asked you what you thought the most beautiful new coupe was on the block. The catch was that you could only spend $100,000. Out of more than 100 comments, we picked the best. A few of you mentioned cars that aren’t new so they don’t qualify but we’ll mention them upfront to get them out of the way. The Aston Martin Virage is gorgeous (as are most Astons) and can easily be had under budget. The Alfa Romeo 4C also is long out of production but deserves some love. Finally, the Lotus Evora is a sleek sexy stunner. Speaking of Lotus… Read:  What Beautiful Cars Had The Lamest Interiors? Lotus Emira At least five of you picked the Emira and it’s easy to see why. One of the newest Lotus creations has ditched some of the harder angular lines of the past and leaned into organic transitions from surface to surface. Egg Enthusiast, SteersUright, and BoxerFanatic all picked it ...

If the law doesn’t get you, karma will. That’s the conclusion we’re drawing from this video of a scooter rider getting a taste of his own medicine after trying to vandalize a police car in North Wales. The clip shows a police patrol car parked on a wet, urban street in Wrexham when a man on a scooter appears on the same road, riding towards the car. A quad bike is also visible, riding illegally on the sidewalk. There’s no sign of the police officer, so the scene is set for the vandals to damage the cop car and make a clean getaway. But that’s not what happens. Related: Moped Gang In London Attacks A Bugatti Chiron With A Hammer As the scooter rider approaches the car he kicks out his right leg, and does it hard enough that we see the driver’s side door mirror on the police car break off its mounting and dangle limp, as if it’s been knocked off by another car passing too close. But that kick was also strong enough to completely de-stabilize the scooter rider , whose front tire ...

For the second time this year, a rash of thefts has hit Sweden’s roads. The target? The cameras inside automatic speed limit enforcement devices, which has led some experts to believe that the spree is being funded by Russia. Sweden started installing speed cameras in 2006 along rural roads, and since then, the expensive pieces of technology have gone largely untouched. Sure, occasionally an angry driver might knock over a post or spray paint the lens of the speed camera, but Swedish authorities hadn’t seen thefts of the tech inside the machines until this August. According to The New York Times , as many as 70 speed cameras were destroyed in just eight days in August. Thefts have picked up again in October, and according to SVT.se , nearly 150 speed cameras have been damaged in the last two months. Read: Anonymous Gives Moscow A Massive Traffic Jam After Hacking Taxi Hailing App That’s an immediate problem for the government, as the Swedish Transport Administration reports tha...

Ferrari might have made 7,177 Testarossas over the model’s lifespan but one thing they never did was built a production version with a convertible top. That makes this Pininfarina Spider ‘Special Production’ quite special indeed. What makes this example even more valuable is that it has just 256 miles (413 km) on the odometer. Customers of the time clamored for a production Testarossa Spider but Ferrari saw fit to only build one for then Chairman of Fiat Gianni Agnelli. Every other convertible Testarossa on the planet was built by another firm and a very limited few, built by Pininfarina, just like this one, are considered some of the most desirable. According to the listing from RM Sotheby’s , the firm was evidently tasked with building seven custom Spider adaptations for Brunei royalty. During that process, it built a “very small number” for important clients, including the individual consigning this exact car. It has never been registered for road use but don’t worry, it’s rea...